MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine economy recorded a 6.5-percent growth in the second quarter of 2017, the government announced Thursday.

The Philippines’ gross domestic product is lower than the 7.1-percent growth in the same period last year but slightly higher than the 6.4-percent growth in the first quarter of 2017, the Philippine Statistics Authority said.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said that the country remains one of the best performing economies in Asia with the latest economic data.

The Philippine economy is on track to meeting its full year-on-year growth of 6.5 to 7.5 percent, Pernia said at the news conference.

“We have overtaken Vietnam’s 6.2-percent growth and Indonesia’s 5-percent growth rate. This puts the country as either the second or the third fastest growing major Asian economy next only to China whose growth rate was 6.9 percent in the second quarter,” Pernia said.

Malaysia and Thailand are yet to release their data but are expected to be lower than the Philippines, Pernia said.

Pernia noted that the Aquino administration did well in terms of establishing macroeconomic fundamentals while the Duterte administration sustained good policies and projects.

National Statistician Lisa Grace Bersales announced that the net primary income for the rest of the world grew by 8.6 percent, driving the gross national income to expand by 6.8 percent.

“NPI posted a growth of 6.9 percent also lower than the one recorded last year of 7.7 percent growth for the same semester last year. As a result, the gross national income grew by 6.5 percent in the first semester of 2017,” Bersales said.

Among major economic sectors, the industry sector recorded the fastest growth of 7.3 percent followed by the services sector with 6.1 percent and agriculture with 6.3 percent, which rebounded from its 2.0-percent decline last year.

The country’s per capita GDP grew by 5.0 percent with a projected population reaching 104.5 million in the second quarter.

The services sector had the highest contribution to the GDP growth with 3.5 percentage points, followed by industry with 2.5 percentage points and agriculture with 0.5 percentage point.

“On the demand side, intellectual property products recorded the highest growth of 68.3 percent followed by export of goods at 23.0 percent, imports of goods at 20.6 percent and imports of services 10.7 percent,” Bersales said.

Major contributors to the GDP growth from the expenditure side were household final consumption expenditure (3.9 percent), durable equipment (1.1 percent) and government final consumption expenditure (0.9 percent).

Net exports, on the other hand, pulled down the GDP growth by 0.4 percentage points.

Per capita GNI grew by 5.3 percent while per capita household final consumption expenditure slowed down to 4.4 percent, according to Bersales.

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Board has issued Resolution 17-05- 2004, removing the Integrity Pledge as a requisite for renewal of a locator’s business certificate.

The resolution came out on June 15 this year.

Earlier, Brighterday Subic Ltd. Inc. (BSLI), operator of All Hands Beach, filed a petition before Branch 75 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) challenging the requirement made by SBMA for investors to compulsorily sign the Integrity Pledge.

Mark Dayrit, Brighterday chairman, complained before the court that free port investors were being “coerced and forced” to sign the pledge for their business operations to continue.

The investors were previously required to submit the signed Integrity Pledge at least a week before the renewal or issuance of their business permit.

The RTC had issued an injunction in favor of BSLI because it found that Resolution 17-05-2004 was being implemented in an “abhorrent” manner.

It then directed the SBMA to issue BSLI’s Certificate of Registration and Tax Exemption (CRTE).

Because of the subsequent issuance of the resolution, the court dismissed the petition filed by BSLI.

In his order issued on July 26, Judge Raymond Viray of RTC Branch 75 said the petition was rendered moot and academic after the SBMA removed the Integrity Pledge as a prerequisite for business registration and renewal of permit.

Viray added that the free port asked the court to dismiss the petition of Brighterday Subic Ltd. Inc., saying the SBMA had removed the pledge from its business requirements.

The SBMA described the Integrity Pledge as a commitment to ethical business practices and good corporate governance.

On May 23, the SBMA Board passed a resolution that removed the pledge from the requisites in obtaining a certificate of registration and tax exemption.

Instead, the board decided to make the Integrity Pledge a voluntary document as a “good governance practice.”